This paper examines and compares two Indigenous jurisdictions in the Northern Territory and Cape York that have been subject to radical policy interventions by Federal and State Governments. The Northern Territory intervention emerged from the June 2007 release of the Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle (Little Children Are Sacred) report into child abuse and neglect. The Cape York trial, as it has become known, is a four year trial devised by the Cape York Institute and Cape York Partnerships.